Jump to content

Crazy Rhythm: His Debut Recordings

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Crazy Rhythm: His Debut Recordings
Compilation album by
Released1999
Recorded1956–1957
GenreVocal jazz
Length59:58
LabelDecca
ProducerOrrin Keepnews

Crazy Rhythm is a 1999 compilation of singer Mark Murphy's Decca label recordings in 1956–1957.

Background

[edit]

Crazy Rhythm collects all but four of Murphy's recordings from his first release for Decca, Meet Mark Murphy (The Singing "M"), and all of his second release, Let Yourself Go.[1]

Recording

[edit]

Under producer Milt Gabler's direction Murphy recorded with Decca from 1955 to 1957. Many of the recordings have never been released in any form. Author Peter Jones' discography documents 60 unreleased Decca recordings. Murphy recorded the tracks for Meet Mark Murphy with arranger Ralph Burns in 1956 and Let Yourself Go in 1957. According to Murphy, Burns made very few changes to the arrangements Murphy himself conceived for the recordings.[1]

Reception

[edit]
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic [2]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine writes, "the singer wasn't the cutting-edge risk-taker he would evolve into in the 1960s. The young Murphy heard on this CD is a likable crooner with a strong passion for Mel Torme".He singles out for praise "Fascinating Rhythm" and "Exactly Like You".[2]

Scott Yanow recommends the release in his book The Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide.[3]

Will Friedwald said that the taken together albums made during his early recording career from 1956 to 1960 "reveal a young singer with a strong, dark, attractive voice, with a lot of good ideas and an obvious commitment to the jazz idiom-but one who stops just short of having a sound and a style of his own".Friedwald wrote, "As Murphy himself noted, the audience for these songs just wasn't his, and vice versa-even though he succeeded in doing something aesthetically interesting and indeed hip with material that no one would have thought could lend itself to such a treatment".[4]

Track listing

[edit]
No.TitleLyricsMusicAlbumLength
1."Fascinating Rhythm"Ira GershwinGeorge GershwinMeet Mark Murphy2:06
2."A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square"Eric MaschwitzManning SherwinMeet Mark Murphy3:54
3."Give It Back to the Indians"Lorenz HartRichard RodgersMeet Mark Murphy3:19
4."Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry"Sammy CahnJule StyneMeet Mark Murphy3:42
5."Limehouse Blues"Douglas FurberPhilip BrahamMeet Mark Murphy2:34
6."Exactly Like You"Dorothy FieldsJimmy McHughMeet Mark Murphy2:42
7."If I Could Be With You (One Hour Tonight)"Henry CreamerJames P. JohnsonMeet Mark Murphy2:42
8."You Mustn't Kick It Around"HartRodgersMeet Mark Murphy2:34
9."I Got Rhythm"Ira GershwinGeorge GershwinLet Yourself Go2:27
10."Elmer's Tune"Elmer Albrecht, Sammy Gallop, Dick JurgensAlbrecht / Gallop / JurgensLet Yourself Go2:43
11."'Tain't No Sin (To Dance Around in Your Bones)"Edgar LeslieWalter DonaldsonLet Yourself Go2:16
12."Robbins Nest"Sir Charles Thompson, Illinois JacquetThompson, JacquetLet Yourself Go3:45
13."The Lady in Red"Mort DixonAllie WrubelLet Yourself Go3:49
14."Pick Yourself Up"FieldsJerome KernLet Yourself Go2:31
15."Let Yourself Go"Irving BerlinBerlinLet Yourself Go2:23
16."Crazy Rhythm"Irving CaesarRoger Wolfe Kahn / Joseph MeyerLet Yourself Go2:57
17."Taking a Chance on Love"Ted Fetter / John LatoucheVernon DukeLet Yourself Go4:05
18."Lullaby in Rhythm"Clarence Profit, Benny Goodman, Edgar Sampson, Walter HirschGoodman, Profit, Sampson, HirschLet Yourself Go2:58
19."Little Jazz Bird"Ira GershwinGeorge GershwinLet Yourself Go2:32
20."Ridin' High"Cole PorterPorterLet Yourself Go2:26
Total length:59:58

Personnel

[edit]

Orrin Keepnews – producer

References

[edit]
  1. ^ a b Jones, Peter (2018). This is hip: the life of Mark Murphy. Popular music history. Sheffield, UK ; Bristol, CT: Equinox Publishing. pp. 14–18. ISBN 978-1-78179-473-9.
  2. ^ a b Henderson, Alex. "Mark Murphy – Crazy Rhythm: Debut Recordings: Review". AllMusic. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  3. ^ Yanow, Scott (2008). The Jazz Singers: The Ultimate Guide. New York: Backbeat Books. pp. 161–162. ISBN 978-0-87930-825-4.
  4. ^ Friedwald, Will (2010). A biographical guide to the great jazz and pop singers (1st ed.). New York: Pantheon Books. p. 348. ISBN 978-0-375-42149-5. OCLC 458892544.
[edit]